our men need more support at home

My husband tells me stories of the conversations he has with other truckers that he has befriended regarding the relentless pressure from their wives. The pressure is to make more money, make more money!

Well...many of these men are literally working themselves to death as they have constant pressure from dispatchers to get loads in ontime regardless of traffic, breakdowns, poor directions, bad signage etc etc.

Additionally the OTR guys rarely get time to shower, do laundry or even pull over to defecate in a clean bathroom not to mention the lack of intimacy with their wives.

So many of these men are being driven like slaves at 33-38 cents per mile as they have no other options in this economy.

So ladies, love your men, thank them for the sacrifice and isolation and stop spending one penny more than you absolutely have too right now.

They are earning as much as they can.

Comments for our men need more support at home

WOW you are not kidding. I WISH we were at least making .33 cents per mile to deal with all this but my husband started with Schneider's as a newbie right out of school (he is going on three months) at a whopping .26 cents per mile and the 34k a year starting is looking more like 22k by his weekly checks. VERY little that was promised to us has materialized and when they start taking out his insurance we will be making less then minimum wage for his time. We have been together since high school and married for 24 years and it has been really hard on our marriage. We have lots of trust but it seems like at first I was a mess then got it together and when I got it together he became an insecure mess so I think eventually you both learn to adjust. There would be so much less stress if the companies promised what they said and they for God sakes stopped putting so much pressure on the driver. The system is set up to make the driver fail, there are so many tiny things they use to justify taking away your bonuses. I think they must hire a building full of bean counters who get paid a ton more then we all do to figure out ways to screw our drivers over and make them work for less. We have pressures at home trying to deal with all that is on our shoulders and they have so much pressure on the road. The entire career is designed to tear families apart and make HUGE turn-over in the companies. BUT we are Woman hear us roar. It is our responsibility to make him a king when he comes home and while it is tempting, we must spare him the dramas that we encounter on a daily bases. There are days I need to have him hear what hell I am going through all my myself but I try not to share. Find another person to vent to and spare him the worry that he can not be there to take care of things. That is the balance that needs to happen if we can beat this design that is called a trucker's life. Family is EVERYTHING and nothing is worth letting a paycheck hurt your family.

Mar 02, 2012Rating

they do need support at homeNEWby: Anonymous

I would have to agree with you there. My husband is driving OTR and although I have posted a few things on here venting about how frustrated he makes me I try not to let that frustration boil over onto him. He's out there doing what he can to make a living for us as a family. He is giving up more being out there than we are at home. I know that he works hard and I am thankful that before our son came along I got to ride with him for a year on the truck and see first hand what they go through out there. I used to think it was all fun and games so to speak for them but after riding with him I realized there is more to it. Marriages of OTR drivers tend to break up because of lack of trust, lack of communication and lack of support.